Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo was not at all what I was expecting when a friend chose it for book club. Alex is a high school drop out with a drug-dealing past that is offered a chance to start over at Yale, of all places. During the day she will attend classes and earn a degree, but at night, she will be responsible for watching over some of the very oldest secret societies in the country. These are not drinking clubs where the elite of the world make connections and prepare to rule corporations and nations one day. These are young men and women dabbling in dark magic that must be kept within bounds to avoid detection and possibly death. Alex has a natural ability that makes her the perfect person for the job, but she has a lot of learning to do when it comes to fitting in on campus.
And there is someone who wants to be sure she doesn't get that chance.
I thought this was going to be an easy breezy YA paranormal novel that would be a quick, fun read. It wasn't. Instead it was complex and gritty and dark and fascinating. The writing is smart, if a bit heavy at times. The pacing is a little uneven with quotes at the end of some chapters that seemed to almost set up road blocks to turning the page rather than propelling the reader on. There were a few bits that were quite brutal in their depiction of trauma and at the beginning I wasn't sure I'd be able to continue reading, but once I was past that, once I'd settled in to the story, I couldn't stop. Ninth House is the first in a series and we will have to wait until sometime next year to see where Alex will go next. I may not have been fully on board for the first several chapters, but I'm tied to the mast now and anxiously awaiting the next installment.
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